Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 370
- Reaction score
- 3,401
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After consecutive blanks on the lures last week, I needed a change of pace and on Saturday I got just that, with the inaugural club summer rover / species hunt. The rules were simple, we would meet up in Llanfairfechan at 8:15, then fish anywhere we liked all day, before meeting up again at 18:00 in the Penmaenmawr Phoenix clubhouse, to compare catches and to see who had won. The entry fee of £15 each, would be split in the following way: £5 from each angler would go to the individual with the highest species count, while £10 would be shared between the randomly drawn pair of anglers with the highest joint number of species. The prize giving would then be followed by a curry and a few cold beers, now that’s my idea of a great way to spend a Saturday ?.
As usual I would be fishing with Steve A and after a late change of plan, we had decided to fish all day at Amlwch, rather than waste valuable fishing time driving from one mark to another. We hoped to bag up on the minis there, using tactics we hadn’t tried since our days of species hunting around 10 years ago, so it would be a proper trip down memory lane
.
Everyone had been very cagey regarding their intended venues, but we fully expected to see someone else there at some point through the day, we just trusted that if they did turn up, then our previous experience of species hunting would work to our advantage.
Weatherwise, the forecast was giving the chance of some rain early in the day, before things would dry up later, but we hoped that we would be lucky. It wasn’t to be though and as we passed through Benllech it started to rain. By the time we arrived at our destination, the rain was still falling, so we hurriedly got suited and booted before we made our way onto the harbour wall. With just the one other angler there before us we had plenty of room, and we set up base camp for the day in our favoured spot.
As it happened, we were just getting set up when we saw a familiar car arrive at the parking spot and we were soon joined by Steve O ?, it remained to be seen if he would be the only one ?.
The rules for the day stated that anglers could fish 2 rods, but with a maximum of 4 hooks, and all 3 of us had obviously decided to fish with the same tactics. This would be to fish slightly larger baits off the outside of the harbour, hoping for species such as dogs, dabs and possibly a gurnard or two, while the second rod would be used to fish tiny hooks and baits inside the harbour, where we would be in with a chance of a variety of small stuff ?.
Things started off slowly for Steve A and me but Steve O got off to a bit of a flyer, and within an hour or so he was already on 5 species, while we were lagging behind on 2 each. We weren’t panicking just yet though, and we consoled ourselves with the thought that it was a marathon not a sprint.
Sure enough, after Steve O’s rapid start, he hit the wall now and he struggled to catch anything different, but while his species count stayed still and the weather finally dried up, I managed to find a few new ones.
My early ballan and corkwing wrasse
were joined by a rock goby,
a pollack
and a whiting on the inside
plus a dragonet off the outside
to put me in front between the 3 of us at Amlwch at least.
As the tide rose further, I also added a tompot blenny to my total
but somewhat disappointingly, the dogs, dabs and gurnard played hard to get and the larger baits were constantly stripped by the hordes of tiny pin whiting, which occasionally managed to impale themselves on the larger size 1 hooks.
Despite catching loads of fish on the small baits, some of my target species had so far managed to evade me, so I now scaled down from size 8s to size 14s in an attempt to catch something different.
Initially this failed to make any different and I continued catching a steady stream of corkwings, rock gobies and tompot blennies, but eventually my fortunes changed and I finally managed to catch one of my main targets, the elusive leopard spotted goby ?.
As high tide approached, sport improved further and I caught a steady stream of fish but sadly another of my main targets, the goldsinny wrasse remained at large ?. I persevered though and in the last hour I also managed to add a bonus poor cod to my tally
but despite another guy who was fishing next to me catching a steady stream of them, the goldsinny didn’t want to come and say hello to me and I was forced to admit defeat in my attempts to reach double figures ?.
4:30 finally arrived and not wanting to be late for the meeting, and to risk disqualification, we regrettably called it a day. With 9 species I was top angler at Amlwch, beating Steve Os 7 species and Steve As 5, but who knew what the other lads had caught.
After a frantic drive back across the island, we arrived home for just after 17:30 and after a quick shower I rushed back to Steve As house, from where his wife very kindly gave us a lift to the football club. By the time we arrived, John and Gwion were already there and we were soon joined by Glyn, Kenny and Steve O, then once everyone had a cold beer in hand ?, we sat down for the moment of truth.
As it happened, our decision to spend the day at Amlwch had paid off, with me and the 2 Steve’s taking the first 3 places ?, in 4th place was John, who along with Gwion had started the day off at Caernarfon, they had then moved to 4 Mile bridge, before finally ending up at Penrhos near Holyhead, he had caught 5 species to Gwions 3. Glyn and Kenny, who had spent the day at Lillypond also finished with 3 species each, to tie with Gwion for joint 5th place ?.
With £35 safely tucked away in my arse pocket ?, all that remained now was to make the draw for the pairs competition and thankfully my luck was in again, as I was drawn with Gwion for a total of 12 species and another £35 each ?. In 2nd place were Steve A & John with 11 species, and in 3rd were Kenny and Steve O with 10 species. In 4th place was Glyn, who being the odd one out had been given the average number of species to add to his 3, for a total of 8 species.
So the first ever club species hunt had been a roaring success, with a total of 17 different species caught, and after a whole day of fresh air and exercise, the curry and beer tasted all the sweeter ?.
As usual I would be fishing with Steve A and after a late change of plan, we had decided to fish all day at Amlwch, rather than waste valuable fishing time driving from one mark to another. We hoped to bag up on the minis there, using tactics we hadn’t tried since our days of species hunting around 10 years ago, so it would be a proper trip down memory lane
.Everyone had been very cagey regarding their intended venues, but we fully expected to see someone else there at some point through the day, we just trusted that if they did turn up, then our previous experience of species hunting would work to our advantage.
Weatherwise, the forecast was giving the chance of some rain early in the day, before things would dry up later, but we hoped that we would be lucky. It wasn’t to be though and as we passed through Benllech it started to rain. By the time we arrived at our destination, the rain was still falling, so we hurriedly got suited and booted before we made our way onto the harbour wall. With just the one other angler there before us we had plenty of room, and we set up base camp for the day in our favoured spot.
As it happened, we were just getting set up when we saw a familiar car arrive at the parking spot and we were soon joined by Steve O ?, it remained to be seen if he would be the only one ?.
The rules for the day stated that anglers could fish 2 rods, but with a maximum of 4 hooks, and all 3 of us had obviously decided to fish with the same tactics. This would be to fish slightly larger baits off the outside of the harbour, hoping for species such as dogs, dabs and possibly a gurnard or two, while the second rod would be used to fish tiny hooks and baits inside the harbour, where we would be in with a chance of a variety of small stuff ?.
Things started off slowly for Steve A and me but Steve O got off to a bit of a flyer, and within an hour or so he was already on 5 species, while we were lagging behind on 2 each. We weren’t panicking just yet though, and we consoled ourselves with the thought that it was a marathon not a sprint.
Sure enough, after Steve O’s rapid start, he hit the wall now and he struggled to catch anything different, but while his species count stayed still and the weather finally dried up, I managed to find a few new ones.
My early ballan and corkwing wrasse
were joined by a rock goby,
a pollack
and a whiting on the inside
plus a dragonet off the outside
to put me in front between the 3 of us at Amlwch at least.
As the tide rose further, I also added a tompot blenny to my total
but somewhat disappointingly, the dogs, dabs and gurnard played hard to get and the larger baits were constantly stripped by the hordes of tiny pin whiting, which occasionally managed to impale themselves on the larger size 1 hooks.
Despite catching loads of fish on the small baits, some of my target species had so far managed to evade me, so I now scaled down from size 8s to size 14s in an attempt to catch something different.
Initially this failed to make any different and I continued catching a steady stream of corkwings, rock gobies and tompot blennies, but eventually my fortunes changed and I finally managed to catch one of my main targets, the elusive leopard spotted goby ?.
As high tide approached, sport improved further and I caught a steady stream of fish but sadly another of my main targets, the goldsinny wrasse remained at large ?. I persevered though and in the last hour I also managed to add a bonus poor cod to my tally
but despite another guy who was fishing next to me catching a steady stream of them, the goldsinny didn’t want to come and say hello to me and I was forced to admit defeat in my attempts to reach double figures ?.
4:30 finally arrived and not wanting to be late for the meeting, and to risk disqualification, we regrettably called it a day. With 9 species I was top angler at Amlwch, beating Steve Os 7 species and Steve As 5, but who knew what the other lads had caught.
After a frantic drive back across the island, we arrived home for just after 17:30 and after a quick shower I rushed back to Steve As house, from where his wife very kindly gave us a lift to the football club. By the time we arrived, John and Gwion were already there and we were soon joined by Glyn, Kenny and Steve O, then once everyone had a cold beer in hand ?, we sat down for the moment of truth.
As it happened, our decision to spend the day at Amlwch had paid off, with me and the 2 Steve’s taking the first 3 places ?, in 4th place was John, who along with Gwion had started the day off at Caernarfon, they had then moved to 4 Mile bridge, before finally ending up at Penrhos near Holyhead, he had caught 5 species to Gwions 3. Glyn and Kenny, who had spent the day at Lillypond also finished with 3 species each, to tie with Gwion for joint 5th place ?.
With £35 safely tucked away in my arse pocket ?, all that remained now was to make the draw for the pairs competition and thankfully my luck was in again, as I was drawn with Gwion for a total of 12 species and another £35 each ?. In 2nd place were Steve A & John with 11 species, and in 3rd were Kenny and Steve O with 10 species. In 4th place was Glyn, who being the odd one out had been given the average number of species to add to his 3, for a total of 8 species.
So the first ever club species hunt had been a roaring success, with a total of 17 different species caught, and after a whole day of fresh air and exercise, the curry and beer tasted all the sweeter ?.
